On Tragedy's Frontlines
Three IUSM physicians were deployed immediately to NYC for disaster
relief.
As emergency medicine physicians, Michael L. Olinger, Christian
C. Strachan and Stephanee J. Evers know what it's like to work in
a world where tragedy, trauma and calamity swirl. But the three
had never encountered the devastation they witnessed at "ground
zero" in New York City.
"It was unbelievable, very surreal," said Dr. Olinger,
IUSM assistant professor of emergency medicine and medical director
of emergency medical and ambulance services at Wishard Memorial
Hospital. "The devastation was so vast and virtually impossible
to describe."
Dr. Olinger, a medical services coordinator for the Federal Emergency
Management Agency, was attending an emergency medicine conference
in Albany, NY, when the attacks occurred in New York City. Within
hours, he was in lower Manhattan helping guide the FEMA medical
effort.
As members of Indiana Task Force 1, a specially trained FEMA urban
search-and-rescue team, Drs. Strachan and Evers arrived at the scene
the day after the attacks, working round-the-clock shifts as medical
coordinators, providing medical care to disaster victims and task
force workers and performing health evaluations.
Dr. Strachan, a member of the Department of Emergency Medicine,
completed a five-year, combined emergency medicine/pediatrics residency
last summer. Dr. Evers is a second-year resident in the School's
emergency medicine program and does rotations at Wishard and Methodist
Hospital.
"It was so massive that the TV pictures and even our personal
photographs can't convey the magnitude of destruction that was there,"
recalled Dr. Evers who, when not tending to the medical needs of
her team helped clear debris in the search for survivors. "The
fact that there could still be that much brotherhood, cooperation
and dedication in the midst of such horrific destruction reaffirmed
my faith that there is still a lot of good in this world."
The disaster in New York City wasn't the first time Dr. Olinger
has been called up for FEMA service. He was involved in emergency
operations in the 1995 terrorist bombing of the Oklahoma City federal
building and later that same year when Hurricane Marilyn lashed
at the U.S. Virgin Islands. He was also among the support staff
at the 1996 Olympic Games in Atlanta.
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